Using a comparative framework, this volume presents case studies of issues of public procurement and discusses how procurement professionals and policy makers in different regions are responding to these challenges. This book discusses current issues in public procurement. Over the past few decades, public procurement has had to evolve conceptually and organizationally in the face of unrelenting budget constraints, government downsizing, public demand for increased transparency in public procurement, as well as greater concerns about efficiency, fairness and equity. Procurement professionals have also had to deal with a changeable climate produced by emerging technology, environmental concerns, and ongoing tension between complex regional trade agreements and national socioeconomic goals. The first section discusses innovation and reforms in public procurement and how practitioners are adapting to and making use of new technologies. The second section addresses the challenges of maintaining transparency, equity, and fairness in public procurement. The final section discusses preferential public procurement and introduces strategies for building sustainable public procurement systems. By combining theory and analysis with evidence from the real world, this book is of equal use to academics, policy makers, and procurement professionals.

The main objective of this book is to develop a strategy and policy measures to enhance the formalization of the shadow economy in order to improve the competitiveness of the economy and contribute to economic growth; it explores these issues with special reference to Serbia. The size and development of the shadow economy in Serbia and other Central and Eastern European countries are estimated using two different methods (the MIMIC method and household-tax-compliance method). Micro-estimates are based on a special survey of business entities in Serbia, which for the first time allows us to explore the shadow economy from the perspective of enterprises and entrepreneurs. The authors identify the types of shadow economy at work in business entities, the determinants of shadow economy participation, and the impact of competition from the informal sector on businesses. Readers will learn both about the potential fiscal effects of reducing the shadow economy to the levels observed in more developed countries and the effects that formalization of the shadow economy can have on economic growth.

This book discusses the changing role of government finance in the twentieth century. It documents the enormous increase in government spending throughout the 1900s across all industrialized countries. However, the authors find that the growth of the welfare state over the past thirty-five years has not brought about much additional social and economic welfare. This suggests that public spending in industrialized countries could be much smaller than today without sacrificing important policy objectives. For this to happen, governments need to refocus their role on setting the 'rules of the game', and the study provides a blueprint for institutional and expenditure policy reform. After a detailed account of reform experiences in several countries and the public debate regarding government reform, the study closes with an outlook on the future role of the state, which is crucial in that globalization may require and people want much 'leaner' but not 'meaner' states.

The last survey of the rent-seeking literature took place more than a decade ago. Since that time a great deal of new research has been published in a wide variety of journals, covering a wide variety of topics. The scope of that research is such that very few researchers will be familiar with more than a small part of contemporary research, and very few libraries will be able to provide access to the full breadth of that research. This two-volume collection provides an extensive overview of 40 years of rent-seeking research. The volumes include the foundational papers, many of which have not been in print for two decades. They include recent game-theoretic analyses of rent-seeking contests and also appUcations of the rent-seeking concepts and methodology to economic regulation, international trade policy, economic history, poUtical com petition, and other social phenomena. The new collection is more than twice as large as any previous collection and both updates and extends the earUer surveys. Volume I contains previously pubhshed research on the theory of rent-seeking contests, which is an important strand of contemporary game theory. Volume II contains previously published research that uses the theory of rent-seeking to an alyze a broad range of public policy and social science topics. The editors spent more than a year assembling possible papers and, although the selections fill two large volumes, many more papers could have been included.

In this book, leading experts take a long-term view of the trends and policies of most relevance in achieving the structural readjustment required by the current crisis, which for too long has been viewed merely as an economic recession. A wide variety of issues are addressed, including the implications of the massive movement of wealth from advanced countries to emerging ones and the increasing income inequality evident within many countries. Prospects for growth toward the mid-century and beyond are discussed, with consideration of lessons from the past and the impact of various constraints, including corruption. The policies and reforms required to restore economic dynamism within the EU and more generally, to foster the "Good Economy" are discussed, recognizing the need for measures to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, well-being and high levels of environmental performance. The book comprises a selection of contributions presented at the XXV Villa Mondragone International Economic Seminar. For the past quarter of a century, this seminar has brought together leading experts to engage in debates on pressing economic questions. This book, based on the most recent gathering, will be of interest to all who are concerned about the challenges to growth, well-being and social inclusion that will have to be confronted in the coming decades.

The proceedings of the 1st AAGBS International Conference on Business Management 2014 (AiCoBM 2014), held in Penang, Malaysia, gathers 57 refereed papers. They cover areas relating to various aspects of business management and reflect the conference's three main themes (management and marketing, economics and finance, and entrepreneurship) and present original papers contributed by researchers, scholars, professionals and postgraduate students. They address a range of disciplines that encompass each of the main themes. Using basic and applied research findings together with case studies they provide valuable information on current research trends in business management, international business, marketing, economics, finance, Islamic finance and economics, and entrepreneurship.

The book examines the status of public service in developing countries, in the sectors of health, infrastructure, labour and marginalized populations, rural economy and public administration. The last decade has witnessed significant government focus on service delivery in developing nations like South Africa, Philippines, India and Malaysia. At the forefront of this movement has been the public sector reforms significantly driven by two broad factors: public sector inefficiencies and liberal economic ideology. This move towards efficient public service delivery in developing nations (versus developed nations) has required a significant shift in institutional thinking and institutional capacity for the governments. It is therefore no surprise that while economic liberalization has been relatively easy to implement, governance reforms towards public service delivery has been significantly more challenging. In this background, the chapters of the book, with sector themes, examine the three basic foundations of public policy-courses of action, regulatory measures and issues, and funding structures and priorities-in public service delivery. The book is a multi country, multi sector, perspective since it includes studies from Russian Federation, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Fiji, South Africa, Columbia, Philippines, Macedonia and India. This perspective lends itself to the investigation for a comprehensive overall development model.

Public spending on infrastructure plays an important role in promoting economic growth and poverty alleviation. Empirical studies unequivocally show that under-investment in infrastructure limit economic growth. At the same time, numerous other studies have shown that investment in infrastructure can be a highly effective tool in fighting poverty reduction1. In that context, the financing of infrastructure has been a critical element of most economic growth and poverty reduction strategies in developing countries, since the start of this millennium. This book provides a comparative analysis of the aggregate and sectoral implications of higher spending on infrastructure in three very different Asian countries: China, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Particular attention is paid to the role of alternative financing mechanisms for increasing public infrastructure investment, namely distortionary and non-distortionary means of financing. The book will be of interest to scholars and policy-makers concerned with economic growth in developing countries.

Political economy focuses on issues that are fundamental to individual and collective well-being and rests on the proposition that economic phenomena do not occur in isolation from social and political processes. One leading Australian political economist is Frank Stilwell. Highlights of his work include concerns with the creation and use of wealth, inequalities between rich and poor, the spatial implications of economic growth, and the tensions between economic growth and the environment. Stilwell has been especially prominent in developing alternative economic policies, with seminal contributions to understanding the radical shift in Australian economic and social policies since the early 1980s. He has also been a leader in the teaching of political economy to many cohorts of first-year university students. This collection, spanning these themes, honours Stilwell's contribution to Australian political economy after more than 40 years teaching at the University of Sydney. The book provides not only an opportunity to appreciate his contribution but also a greater understanding of these themes which remain of crucial contemporary relevance.

In the light of multiple corporate debacles, financial crises and environmental disasters across the globe, the need for corporate goals to transition from simply maximising shareholder wealth to optimising stakeholder welfare is being echoed in various quarters. This book makes a distinct contribution by looking at Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from a values-based perspective with a focus on providinga balance between corporate success and social well-being. The book emphasizes that corporations need to redefine their purposes to co-create long-term, sustainable and win–win solutions for multiple stakeholders through mutually-fulfilling and value-adding collaborative efforts. Through the ideal of ‘A Soulful Corporation’, the book proposes a new story where corporations, as associations of individuals, can identify their ‘collective spirits’ in terms of environmentally-aware, socially-inclusive and financially-rewarding missions. Some of the unique features of the book include: ·         A detailed study of the evolution of CSR from the ancient to contemporary times ·         Insights gained through empirical research and personal interviews with over 100 industry captains, CEOs, MDs and heads of the CSR function across companies and industries ·         Case studies on CSR practices and processes in leading Indian companies including the Tata Group, TVS Motor, HUL, Wipro, L&T, Bharat Petroleum, HDFC Bank, Birla Group, Reliance Industries and others. ·         Cases on unique social welfare projects in the areas of education, healthcare and drinking water supply ·         A ‘Society and Local Community Welfare Framework’and a ‘12-point Agenda for Affirmative Action’ that propose policy recommendations and provide corporations with a roadmap for their CSR journey in the light of the mandatory CSR spending introduced by the Government of India. The book has relevance to multiple stakeholders: students, academics, CSR researchers, policy-makers, industry captains, business managers and entrepreneurs.

Ever since newspaper companies first turned to their governments for support in the 1950s, print media has been supported by state aid in many parts of the world. Today, the principles and practicalities of these subsidies have been called into question, endangering the secure funding of expensive high-quality press output. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of today’s global challenges in the print news media’s struggle for survival. It presents current practices concerning government subsidies to newspapers for political, economic, and socio-cultural purposes against the background of declining readership and revenues, increased inter-media competition, austerity budgets imposed on national economies and shifting audience tastes. Using the insights of theoretical debates in the fields of media economics, media governance, and modern management theory, the book analyses these issues by investigating the power of government subsidies to shape and control newspaper markets. It brings together experts in these fields to combine theory with industry practices, aiming to help all parties involved to understand the complexity of issues and requirements necessary to preserve the social benefits of print media.

Economic globalization is a complex phenomenon where the links between social security expenditures and globalization are not well understood so far. This study summarizes new key findings and highlights new theoretical insights in the field of social security systems, labor standards, taxation and economic globalization. Moreover, new thoughts on the links between social security systems and migration as well as between free trade areas and social market economy development are presented. The book analyzes the role of a changing age dependency using a Branson model and it derives implications for the stock market price index, the exchange rate and the interest rate. Economic globalization needs to be politically managed and through the Transatlantic Banking Crisis and the Euro Crisis the need to more carefully draw the rules of the game for financial globalization has been highlighted. Unstable financial markets have a large potential to undermine social market economies and social security systems. The rising income inequalities within countries raise more policy challenges for Europe than for the US.

This book reviews the key conceptions and economic theories of poverty, explains poverty-environment nexus, and finally offers innovative socio-economic and scientific geospatial solutions for the 21st Century.  The book makes it possible for our readers to understand poverty thorough a concise review of the major theoretical economic frameworks, measures of poverty, and points out the need to understand rural-urban dichotomy of poverty. We find the theories and measures to be less-than perfect and therefore point out the need to treat these measures and theories as convenient tools lacking perfect accuracy and utmost scientific reliability. It follows then that the supposedly knowledgeably crafted poverty reduction and environmental preservation solutions are inherently imperfect. The economic solutions proposed in this book transcend extant humdrum macroeconomic and policy measures targeting poverty and environmental issues. We point to a new paradigm in which private sector and other stakeholders can create new and inclusive markets where value is co-created and shared. Above all, this book offers timely state-of-the-art geospatial solutions targeting the most pressing global problems of water, e.g., the use of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) missions to estimate changes in stored water in the water-poverty-environment nexus, pollution, agriculture and disaster management, where geospatial techniques are applied under strong environmental impact assessment regulatory regimes. This book provides a good summary of economic theories of poverty as well as a vivid depiction of the state of environmental degradation in the world. People often work separately on different issues that are, in fact, closely intertwined. The principle of holism is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and I believe that this joint-venture of two experts on poverty and environment has produced something more than a sum of two separate monographs on the issues. Various points raised in this volume are worth heeding when we think of formulation and implementation of a truly effective post-MDGs development agenda. Yoichi Mine, Professor of Human Security and African Area Study, Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Japan                            

This work focuses on urban governance in the developing world, its aim being to bring a holistic perspective to the debate on urban governance in Asia and around the globe. It has been divided into three sections: The first section is on rural interventions as they influence urbanization and its problems/solutions. The second focuses on urban governance, infrastructure programs, service delivery reforms and their evaluation. The third and final section focuses on urbanization and the environment. In the first section, we present evaluations of India’s rural programs including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and of India’s Total Sanitation Campaign. This section covers the transition from rural to urban areas, and highlights coping mechanisms in urban areas and policy implications for urban governance, from the viewpoint of rural migrants. The section on urban governance, infrastructure and service delivery is the most in-depth and consists of papers that present state-of-the-art research on many aspects of infrastructure such as cost and time overruns, risks and their mitigation, assessments of the metro rail, and services such as solid waste management. The focus of the final section is on urbanization and the environment. Here we examine land use change in India, the relationship between urban form and residential energy use in Bandung, Indonesia, and end by depicting a cautiously optimistic view of Asia’s urbanization-environment nexus.

Public housing was once an important strand in western housing policies, but is seldom seen as a mainstream policy instrument for the future. In contrast, in many East Asian countries large public housing programs are underway. Behind these generalizations, there are exceptions, too. By including perspectives of scholars from across the world, this book provides new insights into public housing in its various forms. It contains in-depth chapters on public housing in five East Asian countries and six Western countries, together with three comparative overview chapters.

This book investigates the causes of inequalities that have developed in the European Union, analyzes their social and economic consequences, and assesses the political measures taken to address these issues – also on the basis of public survey results. The detailed analyses presented focus on structures of inequality to be found in the areas education, culture, labor market, Internet access, families and children, gender, and the regions of the EU. The book also critically examines both the legal framework conditions and financial / taxation policy as instruments that can be used to either produce or combat inequality.  

This book covers research on the financing of compulsory education in rural China and provides a highly informative read for readers who are interested in the issue of financing compulsory education in poor areas. Basing on data collected from field studies in 12 counties in 4 provinces around China, this book presents the current status of a new mechanism launched by the Chinese government in 2005 order to ensure funding for compulsory education in the relatively poor rural areas. This mechanism is conceived as a milestone in Chinese compulsory education history, marking the establishment of a government sponsoring model for compulsory education in rural China. Through comparative study, the research finds that the new mechanism not only lightens peasant families' economic burden for having their kids receiving compulsory education, but also breaks the bottleneck of restricting funding for rural compulsory education. The research then also identifies the difficulties and challenges for future improvement.

This book addresses topical development issues in India, ranging from land acquisition, poverty alleviation programs, labor market issues, the public-private partnership (PPP) model and fiscal federalism. It offers an Indian perspective on the dynamics of economic development and the impact the country's legal and public policies have on it. Economic development is a dynamic concept - old problems are solved, while at the same time new issues come to the fore. The emergence of these issues is unique to the development experience of an economy. The book includes sixteen recent contributions and is divided into four sections: law and contract; trade and foreign aid; issues in public economics; and the social sector and poverty alleviation. The chapters reflect on a number of development issues which were of concern for India in the recent past and will be important in her future development initiatives such as land acquisition, agricultural productivity, employment, protection of intellectual property rights, corruption, public-private partnership, regional development, poverty alleviations programs like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and the training of self-help group members, health and education of women, to name a few. The book is a valuable reference resource for policy practitioners and researchers working on the economics of development with special focus on developing economies.

The book examines the various aspects of non-financial central public sector enterprises (PSEs) in India, for a period from 1986-87 to 2010-11. The analysis is based on all the key financial ratios; namely, profitability, efficiency, liquidity, leverage and productivity. Liberalization and globalization have caused competition in India and have lowered the profit margins. At the same time, Indian government has reduced subsidies and budgetary support for PSEs to curtail their own fiscal deficit. Strategic and economic reforms were also introduced in PSEs to make their operations commercially profitable so that they are not dependent on the government to meet their financial requirements on the one hand, and have their own earnings to finance their expansion/modernization requirements as well as their social obligations, on the other. To what extent, the PSEs have succeeded in this objective constitutes one major aspect of the present research work. The other equally important aspect examined is financial performance of the PSEs which have opted for disinvestment and have signed memorandum of understanding (MoU)/ self obligations. The Indian Government has desired the central PSEs to be profitable in their operations in post-liberation era of 1990s. For this purpose, two major instruments, namely, disinvestment and MoUs, were introduced. This book examines, in detail, financial performance of PSEs which had opted for disinvestment and have signed MoU. Based on analysis/ findings and literature on the subject, the book contains some concrete suggestions that would prove extremely helpful to Indian Government to further improve their financial performance. ​

This book describes a system of mathematical models and methods that can be used to analyze real economic and managerial decisions and to improve their effectiveness. Application areas include: management of development and operation budgets, assessment and management of economic systems using an energy entropy approach, equation of exchange rates and forecasting foreign exchange operations, evaluation of innovative projects, monitoring of governmental programs, risk management of investment processes, decisions on the allocation of resources, and identification of competitive industrial clusters. The proposed methods and models were tested on the example of Kazakhstan’s economy, but the generated solutions will be useful for applications at other levels and in other countries. Regarding your book "Mathematical Methods and Models in Economics", I am impressed because now it is time when "econometrics" is becoming more appreciated by economists and by schools that are the hosts or employers of modern economists. ... Your presented results really impressed me. John F. Nash, Jr., Princeton University, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The book is within my scope of interest because of its novelty and practicality. First, there is a need for realistic modeling of complex systems, both natural and artificial that conclude computer and economic systems. There has been an ongoing effort in developing models dealing with complexity and incomplete knowledge. Consequently, it is clear to recognize the contribution of Mutanov to encapsulate economic modeling with emphasis on budgeting and innovation. Secondly, the method proposed by Mutanov has been verified by applying to the case of the Republic of Kazakhstan, with her vibrant emerging economy. Thirdly, Chapter 5 of the book is of particular interest for the computer technology community because it deals with innovation. In summary, the book of Mutanov should become one of the outstanding recognized pragmatic guides for dealing with innovative systems. Andrzej Rucinski, University of New Hampshire This book is unique in its theoretical findings and practical applicability. The book is an illuminating study based on an applied mathematical model which uses methods such as linear programming and input-output analysis. Moreover, this work demonstrates the author’s great insight and academic brilliance in the fields of finance, technological innovations and marketing vis-à-vis the market economy. From both theoretical and practical standpoint, this work is indeed a great achievement. Yeon Cheon Oh, President of Seoul National University

Denmark and Switzerland are small and successful countries with exceptionally content populations. However, they have very different political institutions and economic models. They have followed the general tendency in the West toward economic convergence, but both countries have managed to stay on top. They both have a strong liberal tradition, but otherwise their economic strategies are a welfare state model for Denmark and a safe haven model for Switzerland. The Danish welfare state is tax-based, while the expenditures for social welfare are insurance-based in Switzerland. The political institutions are a multiparty unicameral system in Denmark, and a permanent coalition system with many referenda and strong local government in Switzerland. Both approaches have managed to ensure smoothly working political power-sharing and economic systems that allocate resources in a fairly efficient way. To date, they have also managed to adapt the economies to changes in the external environment with a combination of stability and flexibility.

This handbook contains surveys of state-of-the-art concepts, systems, applications, best practices as well as contemporary research in the intersection between IT and finance. Included are recent trends and challenges, IT systems and architectures in finance, essential developments and case studies on management information systems, and service oriented architecture modeling. The book shows a broad range of applications, e.g. in banking, insurance, trading and in non-financial companies. Essentially, all aspects of IT in finance are covered.

This book is a compilation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory and practices, with special reference to the Indian context. Over the last few decades, which have seen the onset of globalization, emergence of the industrial sector and an increased focus on community development, much attention has been focused on the role of corporations towards developing those societies where their operations are based. The introduction and evolution of CSR theories and practice in the developed countries has given CSR theorists and practitioners the guidance to appropriately place and implement CSR initiatives to help develop their role in the developed societies. However, while ample literature exists on such CSR practices, little has been done to aid the development of CSR in developing countries. Characterized by peculiar economic, political and social settings, the developing world needed its own blueprint for how CSR works and how it could best succeed. The need for doing is especially pertinent to a country like India, which is presently at a very crucial threshold, economically, politically and socially. Given the need to contextualize CSR theory and practice to the developing context, several CSR theories and practices have been explored in this book, which will provide readers with a thorough understanding of CSR and its successful implementation.

This important textbook has been revised and updated to continue its focus on the link between ethics and economic policy analysis, whilst ensuring that perspectives addressing the moral limits of the market, latest behavioural economics literature, and the changes in inequality over the years are included. Basic philosophical concepts are systematically described, followed by conventional welfare economic theory and policy, and applications to some topical economic problems such as income distribution and sustainable development.

This Brief proposes a new theory of public economics which deemphasizes reliance on the free market and affirms the importance of public goods and services within the context of the democratic process and constitutional governance. Public non-market production makes up from a quarter to more than half of all economic activity in advanced democratic nation-states. Yet by imposing market precepts on the public domain, as mainstream economics, political science, and public administration do, public governing capacity is weakened and the democratic system suffers. Agencies originally created to meet public needs are being warped into entities whose purpose is to generate revenue and, in some cases, deliver private profits at public expense. Drawing on classic public finance literature, this book illustrates the differences between public economy and the market model and why those differences matter. Building on this, the Brief sketches the elements of a new theory of the public non-market and illuminates its connections to the delegation of power and collective provision of resources from the polity. This book will be useful to scholars of public economics, political science, and public administration as well as policy makers and those working in the public sector.